Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department held discussions with disability groups prior to the award of the assessment contract to Capita by the Student Loans Company.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Procurement for this contract was managed by the Student Loans Company (SLC). SLC, through its Disabled Students’ Stakeholder Group (DSSG), has important relationships with third sector bodies and advocacy groups in the education and disability sectors. SLC engaged with a number of organisations who support disabled students to gather their feedback and insights in developing quality standards for the new model, prior to the invitation to tender, which was published in July 2022. To support the new service design, SLC also established a DSSG Procurement sub-group consisting of DSSG members and other sector bodies to discuss how the new quality standards could be defined and measured at each stage of the customer journey. SLC also invited written contributions from members.
As this procurement was managed by SLC, the Department did not hold any discussions with disability groups on this matter prior to the contract being awarded.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what contingency plans he has in place to ensure that children who travel to school by coach can continue to do so in the event that some coach operators cease trading by April 2021 due to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has allocated more than £70 million to Local Transport Authorities (LTAs), enabling them to increase dedicated home to school and college transport capacity over the autumn term: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esfa-update-14-october-2020/esfa-update-further-education-14-october-2020. LTAs have flexibility in how they use this funding to meet the needs of local families, including hiring extra coaches. We are reviewing funding arrangements for the spring term.
Government Departments continue to work collaboratively and with representatives from the coach sector, including the Confederation of Passenger Transport, to understand the ongoing risks and issues the sector faces and how these could be addressed.
The Government has also provided £4.6 billion of un-ringfenced funding to local authorities to support them with the pressures they are facing as a result of COVID-19: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-emergency-funding-for-local-government. This funding can be used to support school and college travel.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the debate in Westminster Hall on Children's health: Access to milk of 28 March 2017, if her Department will make an assessment of the recommendations in Tetra Pak's Making more of milk report to improve access to and uptake of milk in primary schools.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government encourages consumption of dairy products as part of a healthy, balanced diet through legislation, funding and guidance.
The School Food Standards ensures milk must be available every school day for drinking. Practical guidance including portion sizes is available on the School Food Plan website. Where we have evidence that individual schools are not meeting the standards, we follow up directly with the school.
We have no plans to extend eligibility for free school milk to all children in reception classes. Disadvantaged pupils over the age of 5 are entitled to free school milk. To help subsidise the cost of school milk, schools can choose to take part in the Nursery Milk Scheme and the EU School Milk Subsidy Scheme. We will consider the longer-term approach to school milk provision as part of a future domestic policy programme.
We do not intend to take a formal assessment against the recommendations in this report, however, we have agreed to meet representatives of Tetra Pak and departmental officials are currently in contact.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with key external stakeholders on the childhood obesity strategy; how frequently such discussions take place; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Department for Education is playing an integral role as part of the government’s aim to reduce England’s rate of childhood obesity significantly within the next ten years. We are working with other departments and agencies, including the Department of Health and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, to deliver the childhood obesity plan.
Our department supports the provision of nutritious food in schools to enable pupils to be well nourished, develop healthy eating habits and to concentrate and learn in school. Our school food standards regulate the food and drink provided during the school day, and foods high in fat, salt and sugar, as well as low quality reformed or reconstituted foods, are restricted.
Alongside these standards, we are leading several significant programmes of work, as outlined in ‘Childhood Obesity: A plan for action’. This includes doubling the Primary PE and Sport Premium, investing £10 million a year into school healthy breakfast clubs and introducing a new voluntary healthy rating scheme for primary schools. We will come forward with further information on each of these programmes soon.
The department has regular formal and informal conversations with a wide range of stakeholders on these programmes, including external organisations with an interest in school food, health, sport and physical activity. We look forward to continuing to work with these organisations as we deliver our programmes.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's role is in the Government's childhood obesity strategy; what work her Department is engaged in with other government departments on that strategy; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Department for Education is playing an integral role as part of the government’s aim to reduce England’s rate of childhood obesity significantly within the next ten years. We are working with other departments and agencies, including the Department of Health and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, to deliver the childhood obesity plan.
Our department supports the provision of nutritious food in schools to enable pupils to be well nourished, develop healthy eating habits and to concentrate and learn in school. Our school food standards regulate the food and drink provided during the school day, and foods high in fat, salt and sugar, as well as low quality reformed or reconstituted foods, are restricted.
Alongside these standards, we are leading several significant programmes of work, as outlined in ‘Childhood Obesity: A plan for action’. This includes doubling the Primary PE and Sport Premium, investing £10 million a year into school healthy breakfast clubs and introducing a new voluntary healthy rating scheme for primary schools. We will come forward with further information on each of these programmes soon.
The department has regular formal and informal conversations with a wide range of stakeholders on these programmes, including external organisations with an interest in school food, health, sport and physical activity. We look forward to continuing to work with these organisations as we deliver our programmes.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the debate in Westminster Hall on Children's Health: Access to Milk of 28 March 2017, what steps her Department is taking to (a) revise the school food standards to align them with the intent behind and structure of the soft drinks industry levy and (b) encourage more schools to adhere to those standards.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government encourages all schools to promote healthy eating and provide nutritious and tasty food and drink. The new School Food Standards came into force from January 2015 and have been widely welcomed.
The childhood obesity plan, published in August 2016, mentions that we will update the School Food Standards in light of refreshed government dietary recommendations. We are currently reflecting on the best course of action and further announcements will be made in due course.
We are confident that schools endeavour to provide a healthy food service whether or not they are required to adhere to the School Food Standards. Over 1400 academies are voluntarily following the standards and we encourage the remaining schools to commit to the standards.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of (a) levels of support among parents for and (b) the potential health benefits to young children of extending the school nursery milk scheme to include all children in reception classes regardless of age.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
We know milk is excellent for children’s growth and development. As part of the School Food Standards, where they apply, lower fat milk or lactose reduced milk must be available to children who want it for drinking at least once a day during school hours. It is a legislative requirement that milk is provided free of charge to pupils who meet the free school milk criteria, and schools may charge all other pupils.
The Government has no plans to extend eligibility for free school milk to all children in reception classes or assess the demand from parents. We already assist with the cost of providing milk; schools can take part in the EU School Milk Subsidy Scheme and, as mentioned above, free school milk is provided free of charge to disadvantaged pupils.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to incorporate the March 2016 revisions to the Eatwell Guide into the planned update to the School Food Standards.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The new School Food Standards came into force in January 2015 and were informed by an Expert Panel of nutritional experts and industry representatives. The new standards were tested by 31 schools and 24 caterers from across England, overseen by a group of school catering experts and nutritionists, with positive outcomes. Trials showed that the new standards are popular with cooks and the menus were as good as the nutrient-based ones under the previous standards.
As part of the Department’s work to tackle childhood obesity, we have committed to reviewing the School Food Standards to align with the latest scientific advice on sugar. We are in the process of scoping out the timelines for this piece of work and further information will be available later in the year.
The revised Eatwell guide is also distributed to schools to use alongside the school food standards and continues to define the government’s recommendations on a healthy balanced diet.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on closing the attainment gap between pupils receiving free school meals and others; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by David Laws
The gap between free school meals (FSM) pupils and others achieving Level 4 or above in key stage 2 reading and mathematics has narrowed from 19.3 to 16.2 percentage points between 2011 and 2013. The gap in FSM pupils and others achieving at least five A*-C grade GCSEs including English and mathematics has narrowed from 27.4 to 26.7 percentage points over the same period.
The most recent Ofsted assessment is that school leaders are spending the pupil premium more effectively than at any time since the funding was introduced in 2011. Of 151 schools in the assessment, the attainment gap between free school meal pupils and their peers was closing, sometimes quite quickly, in all 86 schools judged by Ofsted to be good or outstanding. Gaps are also closing, albeit more slowly, in two thirds of the 50 sampled schools rated ‘requires improvement’.